Note on Asian Family and Place-Names

Seasoned Asia hands are accustomed to the irregular order of Asian family and given names seen in English and formal versus informal designations of countries in the region. In an effort to make this book readily accessible to nonspecialists, I have chosen to follow typical English-language conventions. Thus, I present Japanese personal names in standard Western order (given name followed by family name—e.g., Shinzō Abe), a long-established practice among Japanese authors when writing in English. China and Korea do not have this custom, and so I follow the name order used in those places: family name, given name—for example, Xi Jinping. I have chosen to include macrons in Japanese names and terms for those seeking original sources while omitting them in certain place-names well established in English without them (e.g., Tokyo rather than Tōkyō). Also, I employ the common colloquial references to countries in the region: China for the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan for the Republic of China; South Korea rather than Republic of Korea and North Korea rather than People’s Democratic Republic of Korea. For other place-names in Asia, I follow the Japanese usage, given the focus of this book—thus, Myanmar, Senkaku Islands, Sea of Japan, Takeshima Island, and Northern Territories for these places that are referred to differently in other Asian languages. Finally, I refer to the two houses of the bicameral Japanese parliament, the Diet, by their common referents of Lower House and Upper House rather than the more formal House of Representatives and House of Councillors.